November 30, 2012
Decisions
So yesterday i had another swim workout in the morning. As per usual, before getting into the pool, i checked out the other swimmers to see what would be the best lane for me. No one pays any attention to the lane labels as there was a slowish swimmer in the “fast” lane but no matter, as the “medium” lane to the right of her was empty so i claimed it.
Now i know that i am slow but i was floored (not literally because in the pool i guess that would mean drowning) to see that it took me almost the entire length of the pool to catch this woman! I am as slow as she was! Oy!
There’s no reason for this – i need to get faster, if only to be able to swim longer distances in less than half a day. So i made a decision to take a series of swimming lessons.
I priced them (the pool i swim at is owned by the municipality and is actually a “teaching” pool and you have to use their instructors). In any event, the lessons are exorbinant. And it got me thinking about how ridiculously expensive this triathon sport is. I mean any one sport can cost a lot if you get into it. But triathlon is 3 sports! And all with their own specific expenses.
So that led me to my second decision. I’m open for sponsorships! Now i’m a loyal saucony sneaker wearer (have 3 pairs lying around my apt. And 2 waiting for me at my parents that i snagged at a great price on amazon). I even featured a pair on my blog a few weeks ago (any suggestions as to how to get a half pound of dried mud off them would be welcome! 😉 )
Therefore i think this would be an ideal partnership. I’ll be happy to include a good word on saucony in every blog post, wear their shirts during every run and write disparaging stories about nike.
Unless nike wants to sponsor me. Who knows? Maybe they’re tired of paying successful basketball players to wear their sneakers and baseball caps. Maybe they’re looking to work with a slow runner who’s an even slower biker and swimmer who consistently finishes in the back half of competitions (ok, back quarter) (on good days!). If so, then i’d be perfect for them!
I would definitely be up for any deal. And if i have to give up my beloved kinvaras, i will be happy to settle for the same running shoes that usain bolt has. I’m sure that will make all the difference!
October 12, 2012
By the numbers
50 kilometers; 2 hours, 7 minutes and 30 seconds; 24km/hr and 27 laps around Rosh Tzipor. All done by 09:00am this morning.
Yay for me! I wasn’t really looking forward to this bike ride but I’ve got to start getting some real bike experience, as opposed to my leisurely daily commutes.
Biking is not a reality for me without having either a closed road or an escort car – it’s just not safe enough for me to even bother. So if I don’t want to pack up the bike in the car and try to find another route, I have to stay in Tel Aviv and bike in the park. There are 2 loops – one is about 1.4km around and the other is Rosh Tzipor – 1.89km. That’s a lot of circles if you want to do any kind of distance but since there’s no way I’m giving up my parking spot for this, I didn’t have much of a choice. (I actually prefer the 1.4km loop more but knowing that 50km was the plan, that would have been an exceptionally masochistic thing to do.)
Therefore I joined all the other lycra-clad bikers this morning (although most of them were much faster than me, and on bikes that probably did cost as much as my car.)
I didn’t get out as early as I would have liked. On one hand that’s good – the amount of time that I spent on the path with the so-called “professionals” was at a minimum since they all were probably there at the crack of dawn (as opposed to me who took the time to eat breakfast, throw in a load of laundry and watch the end of Great British Bake-Off). I’m actually nervous about the fast bikers who somehow are always passing me at the narrowest parts of the path, during a curved section. However, they do serve their purpose. They speed around the track scaring all the walkers, dogs, and crows (who are surprisingly aggressive and don’t really move that fast when I’m riding towards them) out of the way. Once they start heading home, along come more dog walkers (who always feel it’s ok to let their dogs off their leashes), various strollers who never seem to pay attention to what’s happening around them and have no qualms about crossing into the paths of others without looking once, let alone twice and the bikers who seem to have just learned to bike last week, as far as I can tell, due to all the weaving they do..
Never mind, I did my ride and had a good time doing it (although an even better time once I saw that “5” turn up and knew it was my last lap).
And the ultimate bonus? 1,353 calories burned! Nice!!
(Did you have to tilt your head to see this? If so, sorry – the file looks fine to me but when I insert the photo it’s off. But I’ve spent enough time trying to fix it. And who knows, it might be fine and just how it looks to me in this edit mode.)
On another note, have you read Elaine’s most recent post? Definitely worth it if you’ve ever sat next to some screaming kids in a restaurant – it explains everything! http://houseofbedlam.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/eating-out-bedlam-style/
And We're Off! 